“Calhoun” Becomes ​“Hopper”

Following protests over its namesake’s role in promoting slavery in the 19th century South, Yale’s residential Calhoun College has been renamed Hopper College, after a pioneering female mathematician.

The Yale Corporation voted to make the change Saturday after months of protest over the residential college being named after John C. Calhoun.

The new name honors Grace Murray Hopper, a computer scientist, engineer and naval officer who graduated with both a master’s and doctoral degree from Yale in the 1930s — three decades before the university’s undergraduate college became coeducational.

As a former U.S. senator, Calhoun served as a leading voice for slavery and against abolition. The residential college had been named after him since 1933, when Yale was seeking to woo more white Southerners to apply. When Yale decided to reach out to more black students decades later, the name became less of an attraction — and to some students, an insult.

When the Yale Corporation voted on the issue last year, it had decided to retain the Calhoun name. Then last summer, an African-American Yale cafeteria worker, Corey Menafee, smashed a glass panel depicting slaves carrying bales of cotton and was arrested by Yale police on a felony charge. This time around, said Yale President Peter Salovey, the legacy of racism was too much for the university to ignore. 

“It is now clear to me, too, that the name of Calhoun College must change,” said Salovey Saturday. ​“Yale has changed magnificently over the past 300 years and will continue to evolve long after our time; today we have the opportunity to move the university forward in a way that reinforces our mission and core values.”

He also noted that symbols of Calhoun and his legacy will remain on campus for the foreseeable future. 

“In making this change, we must be vigilant not to erase the past,” he said. ​“To that end, we will not remove symbols of Calhoun from elsewhere on our campus, and we will develop a plan to memorialize the fact that Calhoun was a residential college name for 86 years. Furthermore, alumni of the college may continue to associate themselves with the name Calhoun College or they may choose to claim Grace Hopper College as their own.”

Reached for comment about the specifics of the vote, External Communications Director Karen Peart responded that ​“details of this and all corporation matters are confidential, but I can tell you that there was strong support for this decision.” Read an article with the full backstory here.

The decision followed a final ​“Change The Name” rally Friday afternoon at which four protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges. As news of the renaming reached those activists Saturday afternoon, it was met with excitement. 

“I’m feeling really ecstatic. The community spoke and Yale listened,” said Kica Matos, a longtime activist with Unidad Latina en Acción and the Center for Community Change. ​“No longer will this city or the university be affiliated with the nation’s most ardent proponent of slavery … Not only did they change the name but they named the college after a women with an incredible record of achievement. What more could you ask for?”

“So many are responsible for ending this injustice,” she added. ​“For many years, students led the efforts. Then Corey Menafee stepped up and in doing so, encouraged the broader community to get involved. The collective efforts of this city — students, community leaders, faculty, local advocacy organizations and faith based groups — led to this glorious outcome. Hopper College — how sweet the sound!”

An earlier version of this story follows:

Before Renaming, Four Arrests

On the eve of Yale Corporation’s vote on whether to change the name of Calhoun College, one final ​“change the name” rally ended in four arrests .

The rally took place Friday afternoon outside of Calhoun College, a Yale undergraduate residence located at the corner of Elm and College Streets downtown. Gathering at the college’s gated entrance, about 45 protesters made their way to the New Haven Green, escorted by members of the New Haven Police Department. There, group members began their protest with rallying cries led by Jesús Morales Sanchez, an advocate with Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA).

“Hey hey! Ho ho! Calhoun College has to go!” he shouted. ​“Calhoun lives in racist shame / Change the name.”

Many people raised signs that read ​“Change the Name,” ​“Away with Racism,” and ​“Black Lives Matter.” Greeted by cheers, New Haven activist and philanthropist Wendy Hamilton read a letter from cafeteria worker Corey Menafee, who expressed support for the protesters and pledged that ​“rest assured I am with you in spirit.”

ULA Founder John Lugo identified the Calhoun name as a force working to foster the subjugation ​“of brown and black people” in the city. Holding the microphone close to his mouth, soft-spoken activist Justin Farmer proclaimed that ​“this is our moment,” and said that ​“I would prefer not having to face” the name of Calhoun College as a young black man in the city. 

Activist Kica Matos then stepped forward to address the group.

“Martin Luther King Jr. said non-cooperation with evil is a moral obligation,” she said. ​“For nearly 100 years, Yale has infected this city by attaching John Calhoun’s name to New Haven and to Yale University.”

“When Yale Corporation votes to change the name, it will be because of the courage of workers like Corey Menafee, who through a tremendous act of bravery this summer smashed a racist windowpane and brought town and gown together,” she continued. ​“When we win, it will be because of the courage of faith-based leaders, community leaders and residents of the city of New Haven.”

She added that there would be an act of civil disobedience ending in arrest, and urged protesters to ​“stand with us in solidarity” as it took place. She also said that those who were going to be arrested were doing so in compliance with the New Haven Police Department.

With that, she and three protesters wearing arm bandannas marched into the middle of Elm Street, holding an orange ​“Change the Name” banner that has become a part of the Friday afternoon rallies. Behind them, two volunteers lowered a tarp. The protesters sat down and lifted the banner to their chins. One pumped his fist.

Traffic began to back up on Elm Street. Drivers honked their horns, some sticking their heads out of car windows. The four looked on, chanting ​“change the name!” Others who had come out to the rally cheered them from both sides of College Street, some standing on snowbanks when the sidewalk became too full.

From behind the four protesters on Elm Street, an officer picked up his car radio and issued three warnings, in both English and Spanish. The protesters didn’t move. A group of officers moved in to arrest them.

In all, all four — two men and two women — were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, which is considered a misdemeanor in the state of Connecticut. After being processed at New Haven’s police station on 1 Union Ave., all were released on Friday evening. For their charges, they will be expected to appear in court and may have to pay a fine. 

The Backstory

Friday’s protest followed almost two years of debate about whether Yale University should remove the name of John C. Calhoun, a prominent southern advocate of slavery, from one of its residential colleges. In August 2015, Yale President Peter Salovey and Dean Jonathan Holloway opened a conversation on renaming on the heels of a mass shooting of black congregants by a white supremacist at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Salovey announced in April 2016 that Calhoun would retain the name. While the title of ​“master” — which had also been up for debate — was removed at that time, he said that keeping the Calhoun name marked a teachable moment, from which administrators and professors could draw when talking to students and colleagues.

The decision seemed like it would stick, for a while. Then in June, an African-American Yale cafeteria worker, Corey Menafee, smashed a glass panel depicting slaves carrying bales of cotton and was arrested by Yale police on a felony charge. The first report of that arrest came a month later; it was followed by nationwide condemnation, with hundreds turning out to protest and urge Yale to drop felony charges against him. Calling the case ​“regrettable,” the university ultimately rehired Menafee. The activists also called for reopening the Calhoun-renaming debate. Salovey in August reopened the renaming discussion.

This time, the debate drew attention from both Yale students and New Haveners. As protesters including activist Kica Matos instituted a weekly ​“Change the Name” rally downtown, Salovey announced the creation of a new Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming. The committee included Yale faculty, alumni, staff and students who could, through their professional expertise and community input, ​“guide Yale in decisions about whether to remove a historical name from a building or other prominent structure or space on campus.”

Last December the committee released a report giving a scholarly basis for renaming the college — without actually recommending whether to rename it. Salovey then established a task force to make a recommendation on which the Yale Corporation would ultimately vote. That group comprises G. Leonard Baker ​’64 (Calhoun College); John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History; and Jacqueline Goldsby, professor of English, African American Studies, and American Studies and chair of the Department of African American Studies.

As of Feb. 2, that task force had recommended changing the name, according to an article in the Yale Daily News.